She writes: “An increase of one percentage point in the share of immigrants in the population aged 11-64 increases the probability that natives aged 11-17 eventually complete 12 years of schooling by 0.3 percentage points, and increases the probability for native-born blacks by 0.4 percentage points.”

On the other hand, she found that the high-school completion rates of native-born Hispanics decline with higher levels of immigrants, writing, “Hispanics are the native group living in school districts with the most immigrants, and black and Hispanic males have the lowest native graduation rates, so it is not surprising that native Hispanic males are most sensitive to child immigration. The relatively large negative effect on native Hispanic males of child immigrants of poorly educated parents may be an indicator that native students are most affected in school when exposed to culturally similar immigrants.”

Hunt goes on to say that native Hispanics increase their 12-year completion rates in response to European, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand immigrants, while blacks do not. This suggests, she says, that the explanation can be in part related to similarity between native and immigrant Hispanics, or differential exposure to immigrant children of higher socioeconomic status -- since native blacks and Hispanics have similar exposure to white non-Hispanic immigrant children.

Hunt contends that because some native-born minorities are negatively affected by some child immigrants, there is a need for reform in accommodating immigrant students, especially those with less educated parents and those who attend schools with many native-born minorities.

A report last fall also revealed that the high school dropout rates for minority and poor students is disproportionately high. There were about 3 million 16- to 24-year-olds in October 2009 who were neither enrolled in high school nor had earned a high school diploma or alternative degree. These dropouts accounted for 8.1 percent of the 38 million U.S. noninstitutionalized and civilians in that age group not in high school and without a high school credential.